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Ronnie Gardocki
Ronald Everett "Ronnie" Gardocki was a Los Angeles Police Department detective that worked at the Barn in Farmington and a member of the Strike Team. Personality Few elements of Gardocki's personality and background have been revealed. The character can be considered an example of the "man of mystery" archetype. His past and personality are clouded in mystery, though he is trusted implicitly by the protagonist, Vic Mackey. Outwardly, Gardocki can be described as "geeky" due to his interest in electronics and computers, as well as his general social ineptitude. He appears to favor the Beretta 8045 Cougar F as his sidearm. He has severe allergies (in one episode, he comments that he's allergic to "everything but sheet metal") and is shy around women. His mild-mannered personality sharply contrasts with the more aggressive, testosterone-driven members of the Strike Team, which has added towards the character's popularity with fans. Gardocki exhibits a meticulous, often cynical attitude regarding human nature and the harsh realities faced by the Strike Team due to their dangerous jobs and illegal schemes. While Gardocki usually keeps these feelings and concerns to himself, he is not afraid to take the side of devil's advocate against Mackey and the rest of the Strike Team during times of crisis. In particular, Gardocki is often forced to make Mackey acknowledge the renegade behavior of Shane Vendrell and the threat that he posed towards the Strike Team because of his knowledge of the team's illegal activities. He was an early advocate for killing Shane to prevent him from betraying the Strike Team to gang leader Antoine Mitchell; he was also the first to express fears that fellow detective Curtis Lemansky might have turned state's evidence against the Strike Team, though Gardocki was against taking violent action to silence the man. Gardocki's violent side was exposed in season 5. As the Strike Team tried to break up a riot between a group of blacks and Hispanics, a black man struck Gardocki in the back of the head. After finding out the identity of the culprit, Mackey, Vendrell and Gardocki tracked him down, and Gardocki beat the man bloody. Season 1 .]] Gardocki was present at the raid on Two-Time's house going through the window with Lem and pursuing Two-Time's girlfriend. According to Mackey's testimony to Internal Affairs, they failed to clear the room which resulted in Two-Time killing Detective Terry Crowley. After this, he was interrogated by IAD Agent Frances Housely, like the rest of the Strike Team. When the Strike Team busted basketball player Derrick Tripp, Ronnie, Lem, and Shane were in charge of keeping him under custody. Lem and Ronnie even brought some basketballs for him to sign, while they placed bets on the game knowing that Tripp's team would lose without him. Some days later, Vic and Ronnie broke in the house of a member of the Armenian Mafia. Ronnie then put a wiretap hidden under the house stove with the intention of hearing details about a drug deal. Their intention was to take some of the drug, give it to Rondell Robinson and earn some money for their "retirement fund". When the Armenians arrived, they ran out and met with Shane and Lem. They then heard a conversation between the Armenians, but they couldn't understand it. After Vic and Shane found someone to translate, they convinced someone to make a fake statement to justify a search warrant in the house. Ronnie was present during the raid when they arrested Margos Dezerian and two other associates. As they were cleaning up, Ronnie and the rest of the Strike Team kept two bricks of cocaine to themselves while delivering the rest. Ronnie and the team later found out that someone had stolen the Lincoln Navigator where Shane had hidden the bricks of cocaine. After Vic got information that a guy called Freddie had taken the cocaine, Ronnie and the Strike Team broke into his house only to find him dead from an overdose. As Aceveda got in, they quickly cleaned the evidence and took the two bricks of cocaine. Some time later, when Sally Struthers was found dead, Vic and the Strike Team went to look for clues on the murderer. Ronnie and the team went into a restaurant where they found drug dealer Sam and asked him about Sally. After he gave them some information about a night club that she worked at, Vic went in to check it out. After seeing what happened inside, the Strike Team raided the club. questioning a truck driver.]] Ronnie and Lem dealt with a truck hijack a couple of days later. When they questioned the truck driver, he described the tattoos that the main robber had. Ronnie and Lem realized it was a gang hit from Los Mags and decided to call Vic, who had the day off. After one of Vic's informant told him the tattoo belonged to a man called Hector Estanza, Vic and the Strike Team staked out the house of his ex-girlfriend, Tigre Orozco. When they saw a young man coming inside the house, they assumed it was Hector and broke in. While Ronnie held off Tigre, Lem and Vic went after the man. During the pursuit, Lem accidentally shot him when they thought he was drawing a gun. To make it look like he was, Vic planted a gun on him. They all eventually realized he was Tigre's brother and not Hector. Ronnie and the Strike Team then pondered how to fix what they had done to Chaco. While Lem watched out over Tigre, Ronnie and Vic staked out Hector Estanza's house. As they watched them plan their next hit, Lem arrived on his bike to fight with Hector for torturing Tigre. As he beat up Hector, Ronnie and Vic ran to his help while Hector's men drew their guns. Ronnie and Vic managed to make them surrender their guns and they left. Trying to take the planted gun from the evidence room at the Barn, Ronnie approached Lily Cacuzza, the officer in charge of the room, and distracted her asking her about houses in her neighborhood. While she and Ronnie talked, Vic sneaked in the room and tried to find the gun. When he couldn't, he pretended to be looking for Ronnie. Lily suspected they were up to something, but they just laughed and told her it was nothing. Vic, Ronnie, and Lem then came up with a plan for assaulting the van that transported evidence from the Barn to Central Station. They stopped the van and threatened the driver. While Lem looked for the gun, Ronnie spraypainted "L.M." on the van. After Lem found the gun, they left. When the police were investigating the robbery, Vic and the team returned pretending not knowing about it. As the driver described the "tattoos" on one of the thieves, Vic told Captain Aceveda that was Hector, and he allowed them to go arrest him. Vic and the team went to Hector's home and arrested him. When he alleged he didn't do anything, they came out with the planted gun and took him away. Some time later, the Strike Team was investigating a series of muggings outside a strip club that might involve the dancers inside. To lure the muggers, each of the members of the Team took turns going inside to receive a private lap dance and see which one might try to assault them. After Detective Vic Mackey's turn, he returned to the van and Ronnie and the guys joked about how he had pleased the dancer. After Vic left to check out on Connie Riesler, Ronnie went in. As the dancer was trying to seduce him, Ronnie got nervous and tried to do small talk with her about golf. When Shane and Lem listened to him, Shane decided to pull him out and take his place. As Ronnie was justifying himself with Lem, they heard Shane being taken outside by the dancer. Suddenly, they heard Shane being attacked by someone. Lem and Ronnie ran to help him and found Carl trying to rob him. They then arrested both of them. during detoxification.]] When Vic decided to help Connie detoxify herself, he took Ronnie with him for help. While Vic took Connie's son, Brian, to Corrine, Ronnie stayed with her. As she started suffering the symptoms of detoxification, Ronnie tried to help her but she hit him. When Vic arrived, he calmed her. Later that night, Connie fixed herself up and asked Ronnie for some tea. As he went to the kitchen to prepare it, Connie took his money and ran away. When he noticed she had left, he quickly went to the Barn to tell Vic. about his deal with Felipe.]] When Rondell Robinson complained that there were several rival drug dealers trying to take his business, Vic had Ronnie and Shane arrest some of them. Ronnie and Shane ended up arresting T.O. Osmond, Rondell's right-hand man, who was dealing without him knowing. Also, after Vic's son was put in wait-list for Glenridge because of the news coverage on the Strike Team's alleged drug theft, Vic ordered Ronnie and Shane to look for anything irregular on the business or life of Ms. Emerich, the school director. Ronnie and Shane came up with nothing other than a report she had filed after some burglars broke in her house and stole some of her jewelry. Vic then sent Ronnie to check on Felipe's pawn shop to see if he had Emerich's stolen ring. Felipe told Ronnie he didn't have it, but offered to to bet $50 that he could find it in 12 hours. Ronnie agreed and returned to the Barn. When he told Vic about the bet, Vic told him he didn't know Felipe. Eventually, Felipe found the ring. After Officers Patrick and Chris were murdered, Ronnie went to the Barn and met with Vic, Shane, and Lem. He told them how he couldn't believe Patrick was dead. Vic handed them some flyers to deliver around while he and Shane went to meet T.O. Osmond. After T.O. helped them find one of the cop-killers, Ronnie and the Strike Team approached T.O. again and asked him for some money for Ronnie and Lem to pay any potential informant on the other two shooters. Eventually they got information of where the shooters were and they called Vic. Ronnie and Lem met with Vic, Shane, and Captain Aceveda outside of the building and they prepared themselves to go in. They put on their bulletproof vests and proceeded. While inside, Vic captured one of the shooters while Aceveda murdered the other. Season 2 Some time later, Ronnie and the Strike Team raided the house of some Torrucos gang members to scare them. When the leader of the Torrucos, Armadillo Quintero, burnt T.O. Osmond's comic book store, Ronnie and the Strike Team went to his house and arrested him and some of his men. Later, when they were walking out of the Barn, Ronnie and the rest noticed that Vic was still angry at them. Both Lem and Ronnie apologized to him for what they did to their money, but Vic rebuked them. Later, Vic sent them to arrest the arson suspect, Ripley Verdugo. As they arrived at his house, Ronnie, Shane, and Lem, talked about how angered Vic was at them. Shane and Lem even mentioned that he could replace them. When they arrived at Ripley's apartment they brought him back to the Barn. That night, Ronnie and the Strike Team went to Armadillo's house again. As Vic, Shane, and Lem went inside, Ronnie stayed outside watching if anybody came. Some minutes later, Ronnie heard how Vic brutally beat up and tortured Armadillo and saw him walking out angry and with blood on his face. Returning from their free days, Vic and Shane presented Ronnie and Lem with their plans to steal the Armenian Money Train. Although Lem was reluctant to get involved, Ronnie said it was "interesting". Fan response to the character at the end of the first season was mixed. Complaints usually centered around Gardocki's apparent "redshirt" status; fans seemed to think that his purpose as a character was to be dramatically killed off later in the show's run. Gardocki's first major storyline played up upon that belief, bringing the character to the very brink of death, only to have him escape and live on. Though actor Snell would not see his screen time expanded dramatically, Gardocki would go on to appear in just about every episode of the show from season two onward. Early in the season, the Strike Team is ordered by Captain David Aceveda to select a non-white detective to fill the Strike Team's vacant fifth slot. Meanwhile, the Team began a war with a Mexican drug lord called Armadillo, who sought to gain control over the city's streets. Fearing that Armadillo would rat out Mackey and the Strike Team to Detective Claudette Wyms (who was investigating Armadillo with a vengeance after he brutally raped and disfigured a young girl who offered to testify against him), Mackey beats Armadillo, burns his face and orders him to leave town or be killed. Armadillo responds by declaring he will murder the Strike Team, and then murders his own brother to keep the Team from using his brother as a pawn against him. These events horrify Gardocki, who begins to fear that the crime boss would succeed and kill the Strike Team before they could bring him to justice. Gardocki's also suspects that he is being followed by one of Armadillo's men. In an attempt to distract Gardocki, Mackey sends him on a minor errand. When Mackey returns to meet Gardocki, he finds his friend lying on the floor near death, his face having been horribly burnt on a nearby stove burner. As they rush Gardocki to a hospital, he reveals that Armadillo was personally responsible for the attack. The Strike Team vows to kill Armadillo for the attack. Realizing this, Armadillo turns himself over to the police, knowing that it was the only way to ensure Mackey could not touch him. He threatens to reveal why he disfigured Gardocki, an admission which would ruin Mackey's career, if Mackey doesn't convince Gardocki to recant his statement accusing Armadillo of disfiguring him. As well, he demands that Mackey allow Armadillo to leave for Mexico, having successfully escaped any punishment for all of the horrific crimes he had committed in the city. Mackey shocks Shane and Lemansky by saying he would never force Gardocki to recant, and he will confess to burning Armadillo's face to ruin the blackmail scheme. Shane and Lemansky, without Mackey's knowledge, convince a disgruntled gangster to get himself arrested. They arrange for him to be put in the same holding cell as Armadillo, and slip him a shiv, with which he kills Armadillo. This frees Mackey from having to admit to brutality, and revenges Gardocki for the disfigurement. However, Mackey's occasional lover Officer Danny Sofer is fired for failing to properly search the gang leader for weapons when she arrested him. Gardocki survives, but is left permanently disfigured. After Armadillo story arc, a flashback episode, titled Co-Pilot aired which features Gardocki participating in the formation of the Strike Team. The flashback episode was used in part to give the make-up staff the time needed to create a suitable job regarding the scars on Gardocki's face. The episode established that Mackey had hand-selected Gardocki as a founding member of the Strike Team, and had refused to tell Shane and Lemansky the reason for selecting Detective Gardocki. It also reveals that Gardocki was the only member of the Strike Team to openly question Mackey's decision to have the team break the law in their pursuit of arrests within the Farmington District. The following episode ("Coyotes") saw the end of the search for a new Strike Team member, as Mackey, Shane, and Lemansky select a detective named Tavon Garris to join the team. The writers hinted that Gardocki would not be coming back to active duty. Lemansky spends the episode being resentful towards Tavon for "taking Gardocki's spot" on the team before ultimately accepting Tavon as a teammate. Gardocki makes his return to the show in the following episode, "Inferno". His near-death experience causes him to take a more active role in the Strike Team; particularly in planning out a means for the Strike Team to hijack the Armenian mob's "Money Train" convoy. Mackey had proposed the plan earlier in season two, but assorted personal problems caused him to shelve the plan. Gardocki, having previously scoffed at Mackey's plan to use the "Money Train" loot as an emergency nest egg for Strike Team members, realizes the logic of Mackey's scheme. Gardocki convinces Mackey to let the team go ahead with his plan for robbing the convoy. Season 3 Gardocki appears in all fifteen episodes of season three. At its start, he saves the lives of his fellow Strike Team members when Mackey, Shane, and Lemansky are almost executed after a botched sting operation. When a large sum from the "Money Train" loot is subsequently stolen, it is Gardocki who notices, and openly suggests that either Mackey or Shane is the thief. Mackey defensively accuses Gardocki of miscounting the money, but eventually realizes that Gardocki might be correct. The real thief is revealed as Shane's girlfriend, and Gardocki retaliates for Mackey's distrust by voting to forbid Mackey from using the loot to pay for treatment for his son's autism. He states that it is not safe for any member to use the loot, given that the police were still looking for the identity of the people behind the heist. By the end of the season, as the show focuses more on the growing tension between the rest of the members of the Strike Team, Gardocki is relegated to the role of mediator between Shane and Lemansky. In the finale, Gardocki cripples the Armenian mob's west coast criminal syndicate by discovering the main front organization used by the mob. His contribution does little to save the Strike Team from imploding. As the season ends, Gardocki is sent to speak with Lemansky, who has quit the team. Season 4 At the start of season four, Gardocki becomes Mackey's partner. In the first episode, Gardocki seeks to help an abused child whose father has been caught on hidden camera physically abusing his son. With Mackey's help, Gardocki arranges for the father to break his parole, causing him to be sent back to jail. His son is sent to live with relatives. As the season progresses, Gardocki continues to mediate between the warring members of the Strike Team, which has been reunited by Mackey with intent to keep an eye on Shane, now in league with drug kingpin Antwon Mitchell. In an effort to ease tension between Mackey and Shane, Gardocki plants a camera in the car of Detective Dutch Wagenbach, so as to collect embarrassing footage of the man. This he shows to his fellow detectives, both of whom had longstanding personal problems with Detective Wagenbach. Soon after, Gardocki plants a camera in Shane's car to find out if he is leaking police information to Mitchell. The camera captures Shane being ordered to kill Mackey, and Gardocki confides to Lemansky that he wants Mackey to kill Shane first, to provide closure to the problem Shane represents to the Strike Team. In the end, Mackey spares Shane's life, but is forced to broker a deal with Mitchell to preserve Shane's job. Gardocki and Shane are sent to recover certain evidence, and during the errand, Gardocki openly scorns Shane and his actions, ordering him to search through the sewage of an overturned portable toilet. Eventually, Antwon reveals Shane's involvement in criminal activities, forcing Mackey to spin a scenario in which Antwon was attempting to frame Shane for murder. In the process, Mackey admits that Gardocki knew about the tape, putting Gardocki in trouble. Captain Rawlings briefly contemplates firing Gardocki and Mackey for failure to alert her of the tape, but eventually Mackey convinces her otherwise. Season 5 In season five, Gardocki is under investigation by Internal Affairs Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh. Unlike the rest of the Team, Gardocki has carefully hid his share of the remaining Money Train cash and looks like the one member of the Team that could go free. Gardocki plays an integral role during the investigation, searching the Barn for bugs and removing them so efficiently that Kavanaugh decides to stop planting them altogether. This was never more evident when The Strike Team used the knowledge that the Clubhouse was bugged to dupe Kavanaugh into ruining a potential big bust for the Strike Team. Kavanaugh was certain he had finally caught Mackey red-handed, but when he ruined this potential big arrest, a dejected and irate Kavanaugh went back to his hotel headquarters, dismissed all his employees, and trashed his entire room. Season 6 Gardocki meets with Mackey and Shane at Lemansky's grave site, where they fire their own twenty-one gun salute. Gardocki discovers that Lemansky had no intention of betraying the team and feels a measure of regret for suspecting his former friend. It is unknown whether or not the investigation into the Strike Team continues to include him or if it is now solely focused on Mackey. At one point, Detective Gardocki is assigned to work a methamphetamines case with Wagenbach and Billings, and, after handling the suspects in brute Strike Team style fashion, seems to catch the eye of Officer Tina Hanlon, though she soon transfers out of the department. Gardocki shaves his beard off for the first time since season three, revealing the scar from Armadillo's assault. Shortly after Shane's involvement in Lemansky's murder becomes public, Gardocki is approached by his former teammate, who seeks to drive a wedge between the remaining members of the original Strike Team. Gardocki remains loyal to Mackey rather than betray his friend. Physical Appearance Gardocki was originally known for his trademark "porn-star" mustache. Episode 209, Co-Pilot revealed that Gardocki grew the mustache to make himself more attractive to women. Since the attack by drug boss Armadillo in season two, he has had burn scars on his face. In season three, he removed the mustache and grew a beard. His clothing style seems to have changed along with his facial hair. Originally, Gardocki dressed in a 1990s grunge style complete with loose-fitting, unbuttoned flannel shirts. Since growing the beard, Gardocki has abandoned his grunge look and taken to wearing golf shirts and a varsity jacket. While the change in appearance was never officially acknowledged on-camera, it is generally accepted by fans that the beard was a means for the series' writers to sidestep the issue of his disfigurement. Relationships Gardocki is consistently portrayed as single due to his ineptitude with the opposite sex. In the first season, for example, he turns off a lap dancer after talking about golf during his dance. In the fifth season, Gardocki begins bragging about having a girlfriend to his fellow Strike Team members. The girlfriend has yet to be introduced onscreen, so her existence is questionable. In the sixth season, Ronnie jokes that he shaved off his beard because his new girlfriend "likes baby-smooth skin between her thighs". Gardocki is established as a possible candidate for the paternity of Patrol Officer Danny Sofer's son, due to the great deal of interest he showed in the details of her pregnancy, but this was later proved incorrect. * Vic and Ronnie Appearances * Season 1: "Pilot", "Our Gang", "The Spread", "Blowback", "Cherrypoppers", "Throwaway", "Dragonchasers", "Carnivores", "Circles" * Season 2: "The Quick Fix", "Dead Soldiers", "Partners", "Greenlit" Category:Main characters Category:Recurring characters Category:Season 1 characters Category:Season 2 characters Category:Season 3 characters Category:Season 4 characters Category:Season 5 characters Category:Season 6 characters Category:Season 7 characters Category:Detectives Category:Los Angeles Police Department Category:Strike Team